The Women in Leadership and Management (WILM) project recently held a two-day data collection workshop at the Durban Campus, KwaZulu-Natal Region. The workshop was attended by school principals, deputy principals, and departmental heads from the Greater Durban area. The theme was "Shattering the glass ceiling." Women in leadership were encouraged to aim higher and above their current positions.

College of Education WiLM Workshop held at Unisa KZN Region

Dovetailing from the theme of "Shattering the glass ceiling," the workshop focused on breaking the barriers to access to equitable leadership at schools. The speakers shared their experiences on how women in managerial positions are not fully recognised and are sometimes undermined and mistreated for being women. The WILM project was initiated to strengthen the importance of women in positions of power and to increase the number of women in leadership. Speaker after speaker reiterated that women's difficulties in male-dominated positions are complex as they are not trusted to deliver their duties well. The Women in Leadership and Management project aims to enable equality between men and women and consider women capable in leadership and managerial positions.

The workshop attendees made presentations and shared their stories about their leadership experiences, reflections, enablers, and constraints of the schools they came from. The project research team, led by Dr Ntombikayise Nkosi from the Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education, conducted the workshop over two days. The attendees provided positive feedback and thanked Unisa for hosting an empowering workshop.

*By Siyabonga Seme, Communication Manager, and Amanda Mthengi, Communication Intern, KwaZulu-Natal Region